Before I get to the main issue at hand, I’d first like to say that this is something that I’ve been planning to do for a long time. Since I tend to have lots of ideas and/or musings regarding The Eternal Game, I figure that this would be the perfect location for them, as I’ll be able to keep track of them and build on them (hopefully aided by suggestions from my devoted followers). More than just that, though, this blog, for lack of a better term, is also going to act as convenient location for all my OOC rambling/rants, as well as a commentary on science fiction as a whole.

Now that the obligatory introduction is done with, we get on to the main issues at hand, which is…

The Eternal Game: Under Construction

As I’ve been planning and writing out Gotterdammerung (which is not dead; other events and projects got in my way unfortunately), I’ve been taking a good, hard look at the articles that are present, and it has become clear to me that some renovation is in order. I’ve already done this to an extent; some of you may have noticed by revamp of the superluminal travel article, which was a complete rewrite. The newer articles are, of course, fine, as they represent the now-matured vision of TEG that has solidified in my mind. However, many of the other articles are in serious need of some reworking. The most obsolete articles are definitely those that deal with the polities, as well as, to a limited extent, The Eras. As such, before I finish the current chapter of Gotterdammerung that is tucked away on my hard drive, it’s important that I go and clean up those articles that are now no longer up to date.

What exactly, though? Well, let’s list them:

1.) The Terran Great Powers: Right off the bat, this is going to be renamed Human Polities, as it will play home to both Great and Minor powers, as well as whatever other human nations exist in the Milky Way. Note that last part; extragalactic polities, be they native, colonial, or puppet, will be discussed in a soon to be created Extragalactic Polities article. Some polity descriptions, such as the one for the Greater Empire of Japan or United Turkish Republic are perfect the way they are, while others, like the Transgalactic Republic of German Systems and the Spanish Star Imperium, are going to be reworked a tad in order to better flesh out their structure and quirks. Probably the biggest flaws in all of this are the former Northern European Merchant Cooperative and the Russian Combine, both of which will be rewritten from scratch due to the radical change of their nature. I've actually already hinted at the change in regards to NEMCO; note that I mention the United Scandinavian States in Gotterdammerung, which is the new incarnation of NEMCO. In Russia’s case, you can say goodbye to the Tsars, as I've ditched them in favor of transforming the Russian Combine into a massive, very multi-national (like its name suggests) republic that has its tendrils all over the place (coincidently, this was one of the earliest concepts for Russia in TEG). Once all of that gets going, then I'll start working on a group that is dear to my heart: the Minor Powers.

2.) The Alien Empires: As was with the former Terran Great Powers, these guys are going to be renamed Alien Polities, with The Alien Empires becoming a subsection. The biggest issue in this article is the fate of the Greater Republic of the Arm, which was a machine/AI/android polity, and the League of Sovereign Suns, a military dictatorship with a bizarre form of democracy going on. While I do plan to have a machine polity in some form, the current iteration of the GRA is going to be completely scrapped due to issues I've been having with them. Taking a page from history (which TEG does a lot of times), the former GRA will be replaced with the Greater Republic of Cortallia (yes, that Cortallia), a power heavily inspired by Revolutionary France and its war against the monarchies of Europe. Naturally, its relationship with the monarchies and more autocratic regimes of the galaxy and beyond will be... interesting.

As for the League, I'll have to admit that they were my least favorite of all the polities I've created for TEG. Frankly, they always felt like a space filling empire that was there just to balance things out. After giving it some thought, I've decided to also restart them from scratch in order to create something that would be more interesting in an astropolitical sense. Essentially, the successor (which currently does not have a name yet) to the League would be akin to a slightly tighter form of NATO; i.e., a military/political bloc made up of independent nation-states that, over the years, have grown more and more interconnected. Being by far the loosest power in the Milky Way in terms of structure (at least in a political sense), this Alliance, which has stayed together thanks to its mutual benefits, would have an interesting relationship with other polities, especially considering the fact that the major players in the Alliance would pursue their own independent agendas. The whole 'democratic' military dictatorship concept, though, won't be completely lost; The Federative Dominate of Brazil, whose structure was never explored in great detail, could probably make the best use of this concept.

As with the Terran Great Powers article, there will also be touch ups here and there in order to modernize the whole article.

3.) The Eras: To be honest, this isn’t that high up on my priorities right now, as I never really got that far ahead with it to begin with. Eventually, I’ll be restarting all of it from scratch, as the articles for TEG’s early history no longer represent my vision for the history of The Eternal Game.

4.) Minor Edits and Clean Up: Last but not least, I’ll be going about and cleaning up parts of articles that need to be updated. There aren’t going to be that many that will warrant it after I finish my work on the rest of TEG, but some, such as the early articles for the United States of Orion Military Assets article, will probably get an edit. This is especially true for the article for the Theseus powered armor, which will probably be redone completely (others, such as the Sic Semper Tyrannis-class superdreadnought and Paladin tank will be tweaked in regards to their details, e.g., weapon placement, defenses, et al.).

As a final note, I know that many of you have been waiting patiently for the near-mythical chapter of Gotterdammerung. I can assure you that it is coming soon. In actuality, I already have the beginning of the chapter on my hard drive, but I feel that I really need to tidy up my metaphorical house before I can continue on with the story. I promise you, though, that the chapter will come soon.

You know, I've been thinking quite a bit over the future of Gotterdammerung, and I've come to the conclusion that the current overarching story is no longer working. Now, don't get me wrong, the original premise, one of a great intergalactic war that forced the factions of the Milky Way to unite, still appeals to me greatly. It's just that the execution of the story and the story arcs that were to be a part of it were no longer working? Why? Well, I suppose that part of the reason is that I learned that the scope of the plot was far too great to be told in a single story. Something of the scope and scale of an intergalactic war just cannot be told in one story, let alone the subplots that highlight the struggles in other theaters (more on that later) or slowly unveil the true threat hidden below the surface of the war. Because of this, after discussing with Moby over the changing nature of Gotterdammerung, I've decided to scrap the current version of the story. In its place, will be, in fact, a trilogy of works, each one covering the whole overarching plot.

In terms of titles and overall plot for each installment, I already have a general idea on how they will be presented:

The Gotterdammerung Trilogy

Part 1: Gotterdammerung (The title stays the same) – Covers the late stages of the Third Pan-Galactic War and the invasion by the Andromedian Empire and her client states. The difficulties and eventual unification of the Milky Way powers under the banner of the Pan-Galactic Commonwealth against a common foe and their initial campaigns to halt the advance will be covered, as well as the extent in which agents of Andromeda have infiltrated the Home Galaxy and the instable, Roman-esque nature of Andromedian politics (which will become a major deal later on). The first inklings of the greater threat begins to simmer.

Part 2: Rome and Carthage (Proposed; I'm also considering Once More Unto the Breach) – The Intergalactic War is in full swing, as the Andromedian invasion bogs down and battles are fought all across the Southern Cluster. A notable subplot that will most likely be explored is the proxy war being raged in Canis Major between the Commonwealth-backed powers, be they colonial, like the Republic of Canis Major (which has already been mentioned before), or native, and the Andromedian-backed Ultarian Hegemony, a massive powerhouse that happens to be ultramilitant and genocidal in nature. The instability of Andromedian politics will reach a boiling point, while the insidious forces in the background become more prominent.

Part 3: Untitled (Maybe The End is Nigh?) - The Commonwealth counter-invasion of a unstable but still powerful Andromeda begins. The true, horrifying nature of the forces manipulating Andromeda and their ultimate goal will be revealed, and the fate of the universe will be decided by the actions of two individuals.

The first thing that sticks out is that this will be a considerable undertaking. However, by splitting the story into an arc such as this one, I really feel that I'll be able to devote more time to the finer points of Gotterdammerung. So, when will the first chapter be out? Much of it is done, and all I need is to finish the end and replace some elements of it, so I say that it should be ready sometime next week.

You know, for the longest time, something has been bugging me about the way I've described the human polities. At its most basic level, the human polities have been divided into two camps: the Great Powers and the Minor Powers. However, I have come to realize that such a system doesn't really work for the Modern era of TEG, as it really is nothing more than an anachronism to a far older version of TEG.

For those who do not know, the earliest version of The Eternal Game featured no man-made forms of superluminal travel. Instead, massive warp points and warp point nexi linked the galaxy together. Those human nations that were able to secure a warp point (a total of thirteen were discovered in Sol) and thus have access to the galaxy became the Great Powers, while those space-faring nations that were dependent on their patron empires to access a warp point became the Minor Powers. Ultimately, I scrapped the warp point system, but the system of ranking the human polities remained, and there lays the problem. To say that, for example, the Imperial Commonwealth and the Kingdom of Scandinavia are political equals just because they are classified as Great Powers is ridiculous (although, to give credit to the Scandinavians, they do dominate their region to an extant that Britain would be hard pressed to encroach economically or politically).

So, how am I going to remedy this problem? Well, for starters, I'm abolishing the original Great and Minor Power status and I'm replacing it with a more understandable four tiered system consisting of Great Powers, Regional Powers, and Minor Powers.

Great Powers

Like the name suggests, great powers are the big boys of TEG. Capable of influencing and projecting power across the entire Southern Cluster (its purview, essentially), great powers directly rule over many millions of star systems and have truly vast economic, industrial, and military assets at their disposal. The flip side to this, however, is that the spread out nature of the superpower's interests means that they must carefully weigh their commitments, lest they have their sphere of influence encroached upon by other opportunistic powers (which has happened and continues to happen at times).

The current human superpowers consist of the Imperial Commonwealth, the Grand Union of China, the United States of Orion, the Third French Empire, The Imperial States of Russia, and the Transgalactic Republic of German Systems.

Regional Powers

Although lacking the sheer amount of clout and power of their larger siblings, regional powers are nonetheless formidable powers that are locked in the great game with everyone else. In terms of their sphere of influence, regional powers tend not to be so far flung as other powers (such as the Imperial Commonwealth), but instead have significant dominance, if not outright hegemony, of their respective regions. They tend to have respectable colonial territories and interests in the satellite galaxies, and are always eager to expand more. While unable to take on a great power by itself, an alliance of regional powers can bring enough strength to bear to present a significant threat to a great power if they so choose to.

Regional powers include the Federation of Prosperous Indian Republics/Empire of India (depending on which government is being recognized), the Greater Empire of Japan, the Federative Republic of Brazil, the Kingdom of Iran and Non-Iran, the United Turkish Republic, the Union of Allied Systems, and the Republic of Soviet Socialist Worlds. The latter two are noticable for the fact that they are the only two colonial polities to have not only avoided becoming a satellite/dependent or being completely marginal, but have expanded and thrived to the level of regional power status.

Minor Powers

Last but not least are the minor powers. The smallest and/or last powers to have successfully expanded beyond Sol, the minor powers are relatively small in comparison with other galactic powers, having been traditionally limited to various regions of the Milky Way, such as certain spiral arms. Expansion into the satellite galaxies by the minor powers has been somewhat minimal, with many of them expanding under the aegis of one or more great/regional powers to maximize their colonial potential. Still, the minor powers play a crucial part in the pan-galactic balance of power, as their actions can tip the balance of power in one direction or another. They know this, and, as such, fully exploit their position by allying/playing off of various larger powers to fulfill their own agendas.

Minor powers include the Spanish Empire, the Kingdom of Scandinavia, the Federated Republic of Italian Worlds, the Empire of Latin American Nations (born originally out of a confederation centered around Argentina to counter the power and aggression of Brazil), Israel, and the Alexandria Pact (Egypt and certain Arabic nations).

At some point in the future, I will be updating to Human Polities article to reflect this change, but, for right now, consider this to the official canon list of human star nations in The Eternal Game. I should also note that the Alien Empire article does not suffer from this issue and is fine how it is. All that is needed there is the addition of the minor alien empires, who would be more or less comparable to the human minor powers (though some could arguably be regional powers in their own right).

Now that I've covered that, I would like to give an update on the first part of the Gotterdammerung trilogy, which I have yet to decide what to call it. Unfortunately, due to a heavy university work load stemming from academic and extra-curricular responsibilities, progress on the prologue has been slow. Two-thirds of it are effectively done, but I can't say when I'll be able to get it out. Don't take this, however, as meaning that I've abandoned the project. As I've stated before, I am fully committed to the trilogy no matter how long it takes, so all that I ask is that you continue to show some more patience.

Here's the deal: I've got a thirty page paper, a three to five page paper, and a database construction project all due within the following weeks. Needless to say, I'm a little pressed for time. However, I figured I could at least talk about something that's been hanging around at the back of my head. The early history of the human polities has always been a sticky point for me. Traditionally, I've chalked up the emergence of the current nations as being the result of, among other things, a collapse of China after a miserable war with Russia and a civil war, the Middle East going nuts, and a general Islamic jihad in Europe that causes the rise of semi-authoritarian nations such as the French Empire to emerge (not to mention the end of the EU). However, that never really sat well with me. I think the biggest issue with this, mainly the jihad and religious war in Europe, was how the hell could the European powers, who have just had a mini-religious war between fanatical Muslims and Christians and plenty of terrorism and destruction, possibly take a part in the scramble for the Solar System in their shitty state? I could push the timetable up, but that would really ruin other events in TEG. For certain, I was in a bit of a pickle.

That's when I've decided to go another route. A very, very long time ago, Siege mentioned to me the possibility of Europe simply splitting up into separate blocks due to some reason or another. I've now come to like this idea more and more and have pretty much integrated it into TEG's early history. The current idea is that the EU stays united all throughout the Scramble for Sol, spreading itself throughout the solar system, albeit with tensions among the major players in the EU as to how the resources should be split up. When FTL becomes a reality in the late 23rd century, all hell brakes loose for the EU, as France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Scandinavia, and Turkey ditch what they view as a paralyzed and inefficient bureaucracy to go on their own after France and a certain scion to the House of Bonaparte set an example. Territories and resources in Sol are split among the power blocks, which soon morph into the modern powers that you see in TEG.

By keeping the EU together and avoiding any sort of 21st century breakdown, I can pretty much ignore those nagging questions that kept up popping in my head. China's collapse will probably happen much later, too. Originally, it occurred in 2095, but now I'm leaning towards the late 22nd century, just so that I can expand the civil war and war with Russia throughout Sol for added epicness. That, and it also serves as a nice contrast to the EU; China collapses and balkanizes with Europe stays united in the 22nd century. Come the late 23rd, though, the situation is reversed.

As an aside, I've also updated my master list of nations located on the above post. You'll note that not only have Spain and Scandinavia have been booted to minor power status and Hungary and the South-Eastern Asian block are no more (probably conquered by a larger power), but that they've been replaced by two new, more interesting powers: the Republic of Soviet Socialist Worlds and the Union of Allied Systems. More info will about in the future, but I can tell you that the UAS will play a big role in the next chapters of Gotterdammerung. In addition, be on the look out for some possible changes in regards to the fate of Spain and Italy. An upstart Royal Spanish dynasty might have plans to unite the two in the future (or at least partition Italy)

After a long period of inactivity, I've decided to get back into the swing of things. My schedule is pretty tight, but summer break is coming fast and I still plan to make smaller but more numerous updates until then. The biggest one is what I'm calling the Third Edition to TEG, a wide sweeping clean up and updating of TEG that will align it toward my current vision. But first, let me explain the history behind this.

TEG has gone through three distinct phases, or editions, if you will. The First Edition was the beginning version of TEG on OZ that lasted right up until the collapse of the site. I don't remember that much about it, but there were many particularities that make me roll my eyes in retrospect. The Second Edition was the iteration most of you are familiar with. General ideas were put down while other were refined, though its main issue was the fact that I took the balkanized Earth concept to its (il)logical extreme at one point. Hence the arrival of the Third Edition. The main, notable change is the nature of the human polities. Instead of being Earth-centered, a number of them will fall under the designation of 'colonial', i.e., independent polities with no ties to Earth. Notable colonials, which may appear in some form in Gotterdammerung, include:

NOTE: History subject to change

Federal Democratic Republic of Sanctuary – Born during the so-called Ideologue Crusades that were funded by interested parties, Sanctuary was created as a bastion for communism, where the teachings of the great Communist pioneers could be practiced without oppression or disruption by authoritarian/unsympathetic nations. Luckily for them, the technological singularity has made communism, as well as the FDRS, not only viable, but also quite effective in running a polity of millions of stars. Seeing itself as a haven from reactionaries and authoritarianism, Sanctuary is relatively democratic (probably coming as close to the concept of pure communism as anyone can), but its myriad array of enemies has resulted in certain freedoms being curtailed in the name of national defense. This has also resulted in this regional power having a military force highly disproportionate to its size. Luckily, Sanctuary has a few powerful friends out there, the biggest being Cortallia.

Confederation of the Rim – Not so much an actual polity, the Rim Confederation is an alliance of like minded human and alien polities that have unified for mutual prosperity and defense. United through a complex series of gentleman's agreements, treaties, and supranational organizations, the Confederation's diversity is both its strength and its weakness. On one hand, its wildly diverse array of member-states provides many different perspectives on how to deal with an issue or crisis. Of course, that same diversity can make negotiations with other powers difficult, and can occasionally paralyze Confederate politics. Having fought against imperial rivals, former colonial masters, and God knows what used to use the rim as refuge, the Confederation has quite a potent and diverse military machine, which it uses to expand its sphere of influence in the Home Galaxy and establish new colonies in the Great Frontier.

Kingdom of Wyvern- One of many independent polities that emerged in the region of space known as the Bright Jewel Expanse, the Kingdom of Wyvern was unique among its many competitors in that is managed to not only establish hegemony over much of the Expanse (so much, in fact that some people refer to Wyvern as the Bright Jewel Kingdom), but also successfully resist encroachment by bigger powers though both superb military strategy and diplomatic sparring. Often playing the surrounding powers against one another for its benefit while siding with the Imperial Commonwealth, Wyvern is highly aggressive in its campaign to increase its prestige and power, and has made impressive inroads in its exploration of the satellite galaxies. Indeed, its boldness and audaciousness, unseen in a polity of its size, has made it quite successful. However, that same drive could very well doom Wyvern if not carefully managed, a fact the Royal Court grudgingly knows but refuses to accept.

Congress of Merchants – The Merchant Congress was in many ways an end result of the Great Wars of Empire that punctuated the early to mid 5th millennium, a series of conflicts that rearranged the balance of power for the next thousand years. Wishing to create a haven for corporations not tied to any national allegiance, a cabal of megacorporations pooled their resources and declared their independence once the dust began to settle and the victors began to redraw the galactic map. Naturally, several polities took offense to this and attempted to wrangle in the rouge corporations, but galactic politics, vicious resistance by the megacorporations, and a general desire to avoid any more major conflicts made their reacquisition too costly. Now, the Congress of Merchants acts as the only major anarcho-capitalist society in existence, and has become a haven for merchants, researchers, and other entrepreneurs for the generation of fabulous wealth and the conducting of research considered too unethical or dangerous by the rest of the galaxy.

Some of the Earth-originated powers have also been modified, while many others were scrapped for breaking even my suspension of disbelief. Some changes are more subtle – the United States of Orion is going to have a much more Revolutionary Era feel to it, while others are more noticeable. Case in point, the long-winded Trangalactic Republic of German Systems has been replaced with a more simple German Reich, a federal republic consisting of everything from traditional monarchies to staunch democracies (you'll understand later), while the Dominate of Brazil (name pending to change... maybe)has come to be a significant player after crushing its most determined foes in the 24th century.

Others weren't so lucky, however. Spain, Italy, Scandinavia, Israel (sort of), that Southeast Asian bloc I once mentioned, the South American bloc led by Argentina, and Iran are no more, having died out either due to mutual annihilation ( Iran v. Israel, though Israel managed to sorta survive), conquest (Argentina and Southeast Asia), or general collapse and partition due to instability and bad government (Spain and Italy) or succumbing to imperial competition (Scandinavia). All of this took place in a time period ranging from the 2060's in the case of Israel and Iran to the 27th century in the case of Scandinavia. This leaves us with the Imperial Commonwealth, the U.S., Germany, France, Russia, India, Brazil, the Arabia, China, and Japan.

Other changes include a full reworking of the early history of TEG and the continuation of articles such as On Naval Warfare, as well as a few new articles I have planned. And, of course, there is always Gotterdammerung, whose next chapter is already done and will be ready in two days or so. I'll be trying to make small, rapid updates rather than doing fewer giant ones, partially to get more content and also because I think it will be more efficient that way what with my schedule. We'll see if it makes a difference.

More of a reference for me than anything else, this is a quick rundown of the ranks and organization of the United States Star Navy. I originally put this together due to Gotterdammerung, but I figure that this could be the basis for a good article. Regardless, it should give you an idea as to the administrative nightmare that is running a navy charged with defending tens of millions of inhabited stars. Expect one for the Dominate of Brazil's Army later on.

Table of Ranks and Organization of the United States Star Navy

Officers:

OF-0 Cadet: Officers in training, or learning how not to blow the ship up accidentally.
OF-0 Midshipman: Naval Academy students on duty; prospective officers still in training.
OF-1 Ensign: Junior officers commissioned directly from the academy.
OF-2 Lieutenant (junior grade): Lower ranked officers on ships and naval installations.
OF-3 Lieutenant: Watch officers and department heads on small ships or mid-level officers on larger ships; various support assignments.
OF-4 Lieutenant Commander: Commanders of frigates and smaller ships and executive officers on destroyer escorts and destroyers. Watch officers and department heads on carriers, battleships, and most cruisers. Various support assignments.
OF-5 Commander: Commanders of DDs and DEs and executive officers for most cruisers. Watch officers and department heads on dreadnoughts and superdreadnoughts.
OF-6 Lieutenant Captain: Commanders of light cruisers and destroyer leaders. Executive officers on ships of the wall.
OF-7 Captain: Commanders of heavy cruisers, large cruisers, and battlecruisers of all subtypes. Commanders of naval installations and holders of teaching positions at naval academies, as well as staff officer positions for professionals (lawyers, doctors, etc).
OF-8 Line Captain: Commanders of battleships, carriers, dreadnoughts, and superdreadnoughts. If flotilla is split, seniormost line captains will command units.
OF-9 Vice Commodore: Commanders of flotillas and task elements, as well as commanding officers for the largest star navy space stations. Automatically promoted to commodore after a fixed period of time.
OF-10 Commodore: Commanders of divisions. Technology and engineering specialists, as well as staff officers for flag officers.
OF-11 Rear Admiral: Commanders of squadrons and task groups. Military governors for systems under military administration.
OF-12 Line Admiral: Commanders of battlegroups and task forces. Staff officers for highest ranking flag officers.
OF-13 Vice Admiral: Commanders of a numbered fleet. Planning officers for general staff.
OF-14 Admiral: Commanders of a numbered armada. Deputy commander-in-chiefs for major regional commands and commanding officers for sector-level military commands.
OF-15 Fleet Admiral: Commander-in-chiefs of major regional commands and expeditionary forces.
OF-16 Flag Admiral: Top-level commanders. Supreme commanders of all Orion and subordinate forces in a given theater or combat zone.

Special rank

Admiral of the Star Navy: Unique rank awarded to naval officers for exceptional service and dedication. Exists outside of the command structure and carries no additional responsibilities.

Naval Formations

In the USSN, naval formations can be divided into two types, operational and type. Operational commands (79th Expeditionary Fleet, 612th Drone Fleet) operate and deploy naval forces throughout the U.S. and its sphere of influence, while type commands (Columbia Fleet, United States Expeditionary Space Force, Cygnus) oversee the administration, maintenance, and planning of their subordinate units. Both are briefly described here.

Operational formations

Flotilla - Smallest official formation. Typically consists of close to 50 ships, but can vary depending on its composition and location. Flotillas are often further divided into units, groups of a handful of ships, for patrol purposes. Types include scout, interdiction, battle, and escort.

Division - Tactical formation consisting of around 250-300 ships, or 5-6 flotillas. In distant territories, divisions may be the only federal naval presence in a given star system. Types are the same as flotillas.

Squadron - Tactical formation that serves as the main offensive unit for fleet engagements. Squadrons typically consist of 5-6 divisions, or 1250-1500 ships. Squadrons are often designated after the dominant ship class (Battle Squadron 410.2) rather than what duty they perform.

Battlegroup - Mid-level naval formation that consists of 5-6 squadrons, or 6250-7500 ships. Battlegroups serve as coordinator of mutli-squadron operations, as well as the liaison between fleet command and squadrons during major engagements or patrol. Like squadrons, battlegroups are designated by the dominant ship type (Escort* Group 75.1), though they are often just referred to after the flag ship's name (Battlegroup Manhattan).

Fleet - Largest tactical naval formation that is generally used. Consists of 5+ battlegroups, with anywhere between 30,000-50,000 ships. Fleets are designated by their specific duties and operations. Expeditionary Fleets are independent forces not attached to any territorial command, while Deep Space and Patrol Fleets are bound to a certain location.

Armada - Mostly an administrative formation meant to coordinate the actions of multiple fleets across an entire sector or groups of sectors. Consists of, at minimum, five numbered fleets, though dozens could be attached to a roving wartime armada if necessary for regional campaigns.

Type formations

Named Fleet - Major regional command that oversees the training, maintenance, and administration of all armadas and fleets under its command. Named fleets are assigned to a specific region of space and do not engage in expeditionary warfare. Examples include Columbia Fleet, Pacifica Fleet, and Foundry Fleet.

Expeditionary Space Forces - The independent counterpart to the named fleets. They are attached to no particular region of space, often reinforcing garrison forces under attack or prosecuting a major campaign. During wartime, ESFs flourish, expanding to unheard of sizes due to transfers from regional commands and freshly created reinforcements, as well as acting as the arbiter for all naval matters in a given theater. To be made commander-in-chief of one is considered to be a great honor.

Okay, so I started thinking a few days ago about the scope of TEG, and that's when I was hit with my maddest idea: reduce the scope to a pan-galactic scale. Instead of jumping around and colonizing the dwarf galaxies, the powers of TEG would instead be limited to the Milky Way. In many ways, this clears up some major issues. For example, the Milky Way is estimated to contain some 200-400 billion stars. The total combined presence, be it a colony or simply a robotic moho mine, in the galaxy that I roughly calculated for all the significant powers in TEG is around the 26-27 billion range, with only a fraction of that (2-3 billion or so, maybe more) being inhabited. That leaves hundreds of billions of more starts untouched. The best of this is that I won't have to make any massive adjustments to anything, especially Gotterdammerung.

EDIT: Screw it, I want extragalactic conquest, damn it! Actually, the current compromise I've developed is that only the clouds of Magellan play host to actual colonization, with places like Canis Major being home to trading stations and such. That, and I also realized that the absurd megaengineering projects these guys have undertaken means that they should already be eating up billions of stars regardless, so I guess it's a good idea to plan ahead and meet new trading partners.

Yeah, so I got to thinking some more about my last post, and, really, making TEG just transgalactic in scope is for the better. After all, there are still hundreds of billions of stars left to be exploited for the powers of the Milky Way. That, and the speed of FTL is going be to somewhat reduced to fit into my paradigm for galactic civilization. Essentially, there are polities spread all over the galaxy, with areas of wild space and barbarian fiefdoms in between. While the larger alien and human empires stick to the Galactic North and South respectively, that rule is by no means set in stone. If anything, both groups are encroaching on the other, with colonial and native polities strewn all across the place.

Of course, this also means that the Big Bad of the Gotterdammerung saga, the Andromedan Empire, is no more. Don't worry, though, something much, much more sinister is brewing in the dark heart of the galaxy...

I dunno, does it really matter whether the setting is intergalactic or not? Any polity that can make good on pretenses of being truly a transgalactic empire should be able to reach the dwarf galaxies and beyond without much trouble. Unless you either include ridiculous technobabble about the difficulty of intergalactic travel or, well, some other cause-of-plot why no-one has gone further.

"Nick Fury. Old-school cold warrior. The original black ops hardcase. Long before I stepped off a C-130 at Da Nang, Fury and his team had set fire to half of Asia."- Frank Castle

It's a cowardly form of politics to use my spouse to beat me. Instead I shall drop the beat!

The galaxy is mindbogglingly big, so at this point the scale is more implied than anything else. It would take a lifetime just to detail the real nitty gritty of a single populated star system, and once you get beyond a certain point (ie. more than a handful of star systems) the scale becomes essentially meaningless.

FEEL THESE GUNS ARCHWIND THESE ARE THE GUNS OF THE FLESHY MESSIAH THE TOOLS OF CREATION AND DESTRUCTION THAT WILL ENACT THE LAW OF MAN ACROSS THE UNIVERSE

I return from the dead momentarily! Ford is right that the scale is implied; you wouldn't really know it unless someone was to take a big step back and see it for themselves, which was sort of the point. To tell you the truth, I actually couldn't find a reason not to limit exploration to the Milky Way, especially once I hunted down more concrete numbers on the distance to the dwarf galaxies. Chances are that the old system in place will remain, thus continuing my perpetual cycle of returning to my original concepts.

You slightly missed my point. What I was trying to convey is that there really isn't any point to making a setting so big. When I say 'the scale is meaningless', I mean there isn't anything to convey to the reader other than 'this is big for sake of being big'. I mean, I get that some universes are just supposed to be big for the sake of being big, which is fine, but where do you draw the line? What does it add to The Eternal Game that the polities are intergalactic, or that they have holdings in the dwarf satillite galaxies? For that matter, why would you expand to the dwarf galaxies, when you've only really touched a fifteenth of the Milky Way?

I mean, two billion major inhabitated star systems is a lot, to say the least. Do you really need to have more? I think at some point you (speaking generally here) have to step back and ask the question 'why am I doing this, again?'. This is part of the reason my interest in The Logical World died out.

FEEL THESE GUNS ARCHWIND THESE ARE THE GUNS OF THE FLESHY MESSIAH THE TOOLS OF CREATION AND DESTRUCTION THAT WILL ENACT THE LAW OF MAN ACROSS THE UNIVERSE

Here's another idea: How about everyone stop bitching about the scope of the setting and let me settle on a goddamn figure already? I mean, Jesus Christ, nothing seems to placate all of you. I don't care if expansion should occur in the dwarf galaxies just because they can reach them, or that only so and so number of stars have been settled. As far as I'm concerned, the scale that was originally envisioned was way to big for the nature and setting of TEG. That's precisely the reason why I've wanted to dramatically reduce the scope to something more workable (hence my references to the Galactic South and such), especially since I can focus on much more detail on a specific chunk of the galaxy. Actually, that's probably precisely the route I'm going to take, and, as far as I'm concerned, the issue is closed for debate.

Why even focus on the scope in the first place? It's the flavor and storytelling that matters anyway, and if the decision of scope honestly impacts any stories on the docket to the point that a decision is required, then your verse has - pardon the pun - larger problems.

And yet, at the other end of the spectrum, if I take a "screw it" approach to it, I run the risk of making the setting hilariously inconsistent. Really, the issue is irrelevant; if I didn't tell you that Gotterdammerung took place over a largish chunk of the galaxy, would you honestly have deduced it, or even really care? It's really for my own personal uses in refining the setting, and I'd really like to not talk about this and move on, but, whatever. At the very least, it cemented my final idea.

Magister Militum wrote:Here's another idea: How about everyone stop bitching about the scope of the setting and let me settle on a goddamn figure already? I mean, Jesus Christ, nothing seems to placate all of you.

Uh, dude, I'm not 'bitching'. It doesn't matter to me how big or small you make the setting, I'm just trying to take part in some friendly discussion, and maybe help you out a bit.

FEEL THESE GUNS ARCHWIND THESE ARE THE GUNS OF THE FLESHY MESSIAH THE TOOLS OF CREATION AND DESTRUCTION THAT WILL ENACT THE LAW OF MAN ACROSS THE UNIVERSE